The invention relates generally to a method for making a cover for an integrated optical circuit.
German Patent Application DE-P 42 12 208.2, MAYER/BOSCH, has already disclosed a method for making optical polymer components with integrated fiber-chip coupling by a duplicate molding technique. To couple an integrated optical circuit in between two glass fibers, a polymer substrate is formed by means of a master structure such that the glass fibers come to rest in a V-shaped groove in the substrate. Their longitudinal axis is aligned with the longitudinal axis of a wave guide trench located in the substrate between the V-shaped grooves. By filling the grooves and the wave guide trench with polymer adhesive, both a mechanically firm bond between the substrate and the cover and an optical coupling of the glass fibers to the wave guide formed of the polymer adhesive are assured, once a polymer cover is put in place.
The article entitled "Channel glass wave guide detectors with grafted GaAs film in embedded configuration", in Electronic Letters 27 (1991), pp. 410-412, by Yi-Yan Chan et al, discloses the evanescent coupling of a photodetector, grafted onto a glass substrate, to a wave guide located in the substrate. This production process requires precise adjustment of the wave guide and photo detector relative to one another, which must be carried out individually for each component and involves a complicated adjustment process.